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Torchlight II (NS) – you’d have to say, it does look an awful lot like Diablo

The dungeon crawler that managed to beat Diablo at its own game is finally released on consoles, but what’s changed in seven years?

In many ways a video game’s launch is becoming one of the least important steps in its often lengthy lifespan. Many modern games don’t work well when they first come out and are missing so much content and promised features they can become almost unrecognisable after just a few months, let alone years. Such was the original fate of Diablo III, which arrived in considerably compromised form back in 2012 and only straightened itself out two years later with the Reaper Of Souls expansion and the loot 2.0 update.

What that meant was that the year it was released it wasn’t the best action-based dungeon crawler around, Torchlight II was. The two were released only months apart and Torchlight II had a considerably smaller budget and team, but, initially at least, it seemed to understand the need to constantly reward players with new spectacle and loot a lot better than Blizzard.

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And yet after launch Torchlight II quickly faded from the limelight. Developer Runic Games moved on to other things and were eventually shut down, so now it’s seven years since the original PC version came out and only now is it being ported to current consoles. Consoles that already have Diablo III in all its updated glory. And suddenly the situations are reversed.

We would offer to explain Torchlight II’s backstory and characters, but no convincing reason is given for why you’re hacking and slashing your way through dungeons filled with every fantasy monster known to man, other than the fact that doing so is extremely entertaining. Thankfully though, the game has no interest in wasting your time with unlikely explanations of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

But no matter how exciting slicing your way through hordes of orcs is, even bringing down one of the game’s giant-sized bosses is nothing compared to the teasing anticipation of getting some rare loot afterwards. In Torchlight II you constantly feel like you’re on the verge of winning the lottery, and frequently you do.

Whether it’s a new piece of armour, a magic battle axe, or any of the other infinite range of knick-knacks, the hope that the next enemy will leave behind a game-changing piece of equipment is all the encouragement you need to keep playing. Despite the loot drops being random the rewards still seem to be perfectly timed, and always interesting enough to feel worthwhile but never overpowered enough for you not to instantly start craving something slightly better.

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All of this is as true now as it was in 2012 but at the time it did help to hide the fact that in terms of gameplay Torchlight II isn’t really very different to Torchlight I – and that came out all the way back in 2009. There’s an impressive variety in the range of weapons, from good old-fashioned swords and magic to steampunk style guns and explosives, and the backdrops include proper outdoor areas ranging from deserts to gas-filled swamps, but in terms of actual original ideas Torchlight II has always been lacking.

Another way Torchlight II originally managed to obscure these problems was in its six-player co-op mode. However, that’s been reduced to four players on the Switch and tragically there is no local play or split-screen. You can link up with someone else’s Switch but there’s no way for two or more to play on the same console, and that’s a real shame given how intrinsic co-op is to the game’s appeal.

There’s also an inevitable problem with the controls, since the game was originally designed to work with a mouse and keyboard. Giving you direct control of your character works fine though, as it does in Diablo, with only ranged combat seeming a bit fiddlier than it should be. The inventory system has also had to be reworked by… copying Diablo III as closely as possible. Which works, admittedly, but seems a bit of a cheek.

Although the multiplayer has been undermined there are other smaller touches that are still worth noting. For example, the pets were the best example of the concept at the time, with your character able to bring everything from a panda to a ferret along with them. They’re essentially animated inventories that can be trained to go shopping for you while you stay in the dungeon – selling unwanted loot and bringing back essential supplies.

And while the story is almost non-existent the game does have plenty of character, not only thanks to the pets and monsters but also the unusual class types. The Berserker uses quick fire animal-themed attacks, the Embermage wields elemental magic, the Engineer utilises steampunk technology, and the Outlander has ranged weapons and simple magic.

Customising weapons and armour is also an impressively complicated affair, as the character progression takes a fairly old school approach, in that you have to manually assign skill and attribute points, and there’s only a limited option to undo the decisions you make. This forces you to specialise, not only making your avatar more unique and distinctive but increasing the urge to play with a completely different character in the New Game + mode.

Torchlight II is still a great game but it’s one that’s been dragged out of its original timeframe and unfairly made to compete with modern games and seven years of Diablo III updates. Although the saddest thing is simply that we’ll probably never see a sequel, now that Runic Games are no more. But perhaps this belated port means someone else will take up the mantle, maybe even in time to be a rival to Diablo IV…

Torchlight II

Torchlight II Switch review

In Short: It’s no longer the Diablo killer it used to be, but this remains a superior dungeon crawler, with great action and loot that still puts it amongst the genre’s best.

Pros: A perfectly teased trail of loot and addictive action, with a huge variety of attractive, varied backdrops and enemies. Four-player online co-op and mountains of content.

Cons: Very few new ideas of any kind. Perfunctory story and forgettable dialogue. No local co-op options and minor compromises in terms of controls.